Amid all the flopping and jawing and Chris Paul-saving the Clippers endured Monday night in their Game 4 win over Memphis, two dunks by two different Clips from two different teammates brought all 20,000-plus in Staples Center to their feet in a full-on “Lob City” moment.

Neither play is better than the work Paul did in overtime. Paul’s eight points in OT lit the entire city and the Twittersphere on fire like it was 1991 and everyone was trying to be in “Backdraft.” That was a flat-out backyard barbecue of Memphis’ backcourt. No, these are just a couple of nice alley-oops done by the gold standard team of alley-oopers. Paul’s dish to DeAndre Jordan and Mo Williams‘ dime to Blake Griffin came through as huge highlights. Read More »

If Chris Webber, who spent years playing with the man often credited with bringing acting to the NBA, is criticizing how much a team flops, there are problems. Webber partnered with Vlade Divac. He knows the intricacies of flopping and ref-goading. It became a perfect marriage then to have C-Webb call last night’s Game 4 between the Clippers and Grizzlies for TNT because that might’ve been the most blatant prolongation of flopping we’ve seen all year. It was ugly. It was bad. At times, it was downright embarrassing and frustrating. The Clippers’ star players are so good flopping should never come into it. Read More »

Oh, we want to put an asterisk by this so, so bad. But damn, Chris Paul is just too, too good. We can forget that CP and Blake Griffin will probably wake up today with whiplash from all of their flopping and flailing. Paul dropped eight overtime points, cooked half the Grizzlies roster, and finished with 27 points, nine rebounds and seven assists as the Clippers went up 3-1 on Memphis, 101-97. After not having a single second-chance point all game, L.A. had two buckets in a row off misses in overtime, and even with Mike Conley (25 points, seven rebounds, eight dimes) playing the game of his life, the Grizzlies couldn’t finish. Again. … Read More »

Thank you James Harden. With Dallas in danger of extending the inevitable, – OKC in the second round – the super sub stepped up and destroyed the defending champs down the stretch. Harden finished with 29 points in the Thunder’s six-point win to complete the sweep, and was so good, everyone forgot about KD (24 points, 11 rebounds) and Westbrook in crunch time. Dirk Nowitzki (34 points) was struggling to hold Dallas’ once 13-point fourth quarter lead as OKC hit them with a 12-0 run, which including one spurt where Westbrook had two straight steals, leading to big dunks from Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka. Eventually, it spread to a 21-5 run and Durant was in everyone’s face during a timeout to end the series. Read More »

Tony Allen was on the wrong end of too many highlights last night. Right here, Chris Paul gave him a ball fake that had Allen doing the Superman at air. On the night, Paul had 29 points on 17 shots as the Grizzlies turned him into a scorer rather than a facilitator. It worked… for the most part. Read More »

Considering the rare tragedies and triumphs that dominated Wednesday’s sports headlines — from the death of Junior Seau to Jered Weaver throwing a no-hitter for the Angels — nothing in the NBA playoffs could have happened to make the day feel any more surreal. Not even the fact that the Clippers and Grizzlies delivered the best game of the night. Wait a minute: Clippers? Grizzlies? Playoffs? You’re talking about playoffs? … Having been on the wrong side of that incredible Game 1 fourth-quarter comeback, Memphis faced a gut check in Game 2. Read More »

It’s been two days – one weekend – and the NBA Playoffs have already thrown some twists our way. Derrick Rose is done, Nick Young and Reggie Evans spearheaded what might’ve been the greatest comeback ever and Andrew Bynum is setting records. Who would’ve thought? It only promises to get better from here as the Eastern Conference is now a complete disaster, and in the West, everyone outside of San Antonio has question marks. Read More »

We know about Kobe. We know about LeBron. And we know about Kevin Durant. We know the championship will probably come down to one or two games, and one or two players. But in every series, they’ll be twists and turns. A Game 3 will slide on a bench player scoring 12 points in a half. Some lower seed with get a split on the road because one of their big men made 90 percent of his free throws. Some ref might throw a game. Anything could happen. Read More »

The playoffs are basically 24 hours away, and you know what that means: hot new sneakers. Jordan Brand is set to release new playoff exclusive home and away colorways for the Jordan CP3.V, Melo M8 and the Fly Wade 2 EV. When Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony take the floor this weekend, they’ll be rocking these joints. Read More »

With only a few games left on the slate it’s looking like LeBron James will be our MVP for 2012. His main competition, Kevin Durant, has surrendered, recently quoted saying:

“He [LeBron] deserves all the love [for MVP], He’s playing phenomenal basketball. I’m just trying to get better every single game and trying to help my team as much as I can. I’m just blessed to be in that conversation.”

Here’s what the Top 10 MVP Candidates looks like today: Read More »